


We're the main attraction

by Blue_XI



Series: TK and Carlos [7]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Based on Real Events, Drama, Explicit Depictions of Death, Huge fires, LONG CHAPTER, M/M, Multiple-Alarm Fire, Professional first responders, Reading the notes is mandatory, Serious Injuries, Urban Tragedy, Worried boyfriends, firefighting, overcoming the odds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_XI/pseuds/Blue_XI
Summary: “Do you think we’d even be entertaining enough to make it to the local news?”Or the time when tragedy strikes, once again, and Tyler and Carlos have to learn how to deal with the emotional aftermath.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes & Owen Strand, Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, Judd Ryder & TK Strand, Mateo Chavez & Paul Strickland (9-1-1 Lone Star), Michelle Blake & Carlos Reyes (9-1-1 Lone Star), TK Strand & Paul Strickland
Series: TK and Carlos [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794460
Comments: 16
Kudos: 57





	We're the main attraction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lewisvquez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lewisvquez/gifts).



> ATTENTION!  
> Please read this note. This chapter is long, emotionally heavy and depicts a mass disaster with which our characters have to deal with, as first responders. There are a lot of descriptions of death, suffering, injuries, desperation and all kinds of feelings one goes through in a situation like this. If you feel triggered by it of if you're not in a stable enough moment to face these descriptions of scenes and immerse yourself in the situations the characters have to go through, please turn away.  
> This chapter was based on true events. I'll elaborate in the final notes for those interested. Based! I took the liberty of dramatizing where I felt it needed to, as well as adapting it to the context of the show. And remember: value your mental health first. Walk away if you don't feel comfortable.  
> Hope you enjoy it!

There are few things a firefighter actually dreads in their life. Being around tragedy all the time brings a sense of humbleness to anyone. Of how frail human life is, of how fast our passage through this world is, and how things don’t always make sense, or how life isn’t fair. You learn to connect with other people in their time of most need, of most vulnerability; but also to compartmentalize and turn it all off when you take off the uniform to go home. Some people are better at it than others, but in some level, you always get affected by what you see on your work.

But most of all, you learn not to take life for granted, because it could all end any second, for any reason; nothing is under your control and death spares no one.

Also, you were allowed to have affinity with different tasks in your job. In something as wide as the firefighting field, there were a lot of areas of expertise, a lot of specific courses you have to take to be able to work with specific situations. Of course, there are a series of basic situations every professional needs to know about to be able to wear a badge – fire, in general. TK’s specialty was heights. He also liked search and rescue.

He liked being high above the world, almost like he was flying above all of the people passing underneath, many times not even aware of what’s happening. New York was a unique place in which his heights dreams always came through. There was at least a window-washer per week in need of rescue. The illusion of flight always brought him peace, it came naturally to him. TK was proud to say he never lost anyone.

Don’t get him wrong, TK is a firefighter because he likes taking care of people in need, whatever it is. But he was just human, he is allowed to have preferences. And the thing TK didn’t like were… Fires. Big fires. Forrest fires, thank God, never happened in New York. He wasn’t around for 9/11 but he saw what it took from his dad. Almost everything. He was only the shallow of a man for years. Sometimes it still felt like he never left that day.

His job was high risk and he knew it from the moment he stepped foot on the Academy, but it never ceased to raise the hairs in the back of his neck when he heard the expression “multiple-alarm fire”. TK would take a radioactive disaster over a huge fire any day.

Before he knew about his father’s cancer diagnosis, he was secretly sure his dad would go in a big fire, die like a hero, in a blaze of glory, in the best Owen Strand I’m-The-Center-of-Attention fashion. Now he wasn’t so sure, but it was high on his list of concerns.

However, there are some bullets not even Superman can dodge; and the job description was literally fighting fires. TK’s luck was that Texas was full of deserts and forest fires were not really a concern, because staying 48 hours straight in the restrictive firefighting suit in the middle of fucking nowhere at 800 degrees or more was not on his bucket list.

But, Austin was a fairly big city and although it has been developing fast and has been seen as a futuristic city, almost, there were still old-as-this-green-Earth tall buildings that, just by looking at them, you could tell they didn’t follow any fire hazard safety protocols.

In bigger cities like New York this was even a bigger problem because, once a building turns 100 years old, it becomes a landmark and can’t be taken down, by law. What happened, usually, was that the owners or heirs just left it there to rot and decay on it’s own, until it fell; so they could appropriate and sell the grounds. People getting hurt in the process were not really a concern, because the price of a square yard on the island of Manhattan apparently could solve any legal problems.

The morning had started like any other, his dad making his fancy coffees that pissed off Judd and Marjan cooking breakfast. Mateo – the fucking probie – teasing him about a hickey. Everything was fine at the fire-house, until Michelle turned up the volume of the news on TV.

“A fire on a building in downtown Austin, our correspondent Melanie is at the scene…”

The call alone was enough to make people start gathering around Michelle on the couch.

“A 25-story building is burning bright in the Texan sky today, as authorities hurry to find a way to rescue people trapped inside”

The image cut to a live feed of the building, fire burning hot from the half of it. It looked old. They didn’t have much time before fire spread all the way up to the top floor. If it was as old as it looked, they’d be lucky if the structure wasn’t built with flammable materials and the fire traveled down through columns and air-ducts. When it does so, besides cooking everyone inside like an oven, it also made it nearly impossible for the structure to survive without falling apart. Everything in this news looked like mass disaster already.

“We are being informed that this building was the base for a local law firm and an international investment bank. Both institutions were already on the 9 to 5 shift when the fire reportedly started, in the beginning of the morning. Authorities say there were approximately 500 people inside the building…”

Michelle covered her mouth in shock. Everyone was so tense in the room. The feeling of fear was already taking over TK’s body. And he knew what was about to happen.

“Get a grip of yourself, Tyler Kennedy” He mumbled under his breath to himself.

No one seemed to notice, too immersed on the weight of the news to care, except his dad. Owen’s eyes scanned the room immediately and found TK’s instantaneously.

TK could see the reflection of his own fear in his father’s eyes. There was also something more there, something deeper, that TK could tell Owen was fighting to conceal at all cost. He didn’t need to be a genius to guess where a tall building engulfed in severe fire took his dad to. The worst day of his life. The day he survived the biggest terrorist attack in the history of the US.

It rarely shows its face, and Owen always did his best to conceal his PTSD and work through it in therapy, but in moments like these; TK could see exactly how vulnerable, strong and brave his dad was. For sheer luck, he survived two buildings falling on top of him. TK knew that in that moment he wouldn’t rather be anywhere else in the world but in that wreckage, fighting to help those innocent people. He never regretted being there, doing what he does, even with all the years of scarring and all the consequences this job took on him. His dad was the bravest man he knew, his own personal superhero.

However, he was getting older and he was sick now. TK had to take better care of him, to not let his stubbornness get in the way of reason. It was TK’s job now to keep his dad safe, now he could do something about it. This was one of the reasons why he wanted to work under his dad’s leadership so much. And he’d do whatever it takes.

  
  


—§—

  
  


Carlos knew TK’s job was high risk the moment they met. It’s not like Carlos is in the safest line of work either, being a cop doesn’t make one bulletproof; and being in Texas, everyone had a gun and there were at least more projectiles flying around. They were both at constant risk of today being their last day on their jobs. Maybe TK slightly highly at risk because, well, it was TK and the guy seemed to have a magnet to attract tragedies to himself.

He still wasn’t comfortable texting during work hours, but when his Sergeant ordered him to drop his patrol routine and head for support in a fire downtown, he pulled out his phone and fired a text asking if TK knew what was going on. Of course, he got no response, which made him even more nervous.

Every mile he got closer to the scene, the sirens were louder and bigger in numbers. The smoke column was pitch black, huge and high. Fuck. Carlos had always feared disasters because of Michelle and her dangerous line of work. But the division between EMTs and firefighters in Travis County actually shielded her from the worst of it all. Now, he had to fear for the life of the man that he loved, and their friends. Carlos always kept it cool, always professional and composed under pressure; but TK’s magnet for trouble made him find new senses for the word “fear”.

Of course they talked about it, the possibility of one of them not coming home one day. It didn’t make him any more reassured or ready to deal with it. He wasn’t going to lose Tyler. Not today, not ever.

He knew he couldn’t survive it.

A shiver went down his spine. A fire of this magnitude had to involve everyone available in the County, maybe even from the neighbor ones. He swallowed his spit like glass and floored the car, sirens ablaze.

  
  


—§—

  
  


TK knew, logically, he was supposed to always follow protocol in all situations. They are not there for formality only, protocols saved lives when it mattered the most, especially when it came to prevention and assessment of tragedies. However, once shit hits the fan, caos spreads faster than the fire itself. Breaking the rules in the right moment and for the right reason was also a deal-breaker in survival techniques. TK used to break (or bend) the rules every once in a while and although it made him look like a hero in the majority of the times, it always made Owen vibrate out of his skin in agony. Not that his dad – and Captain – was any different from himself when it came down to putting his own ass on the line for the safety of others, this was the job and their calling, but it was because as a Captain; Owen was responsible for the mistakes of everyone on his team. Ultimately, if someone made a poor choice in the heat of the moment, it was Owen the one who had to contact loved ones, hospitals, family, friends. He was the one who always stayed behind. It was so on 9/11 and it was the greatest pain Owen had ever known. To carry that guilt of making it out of there.

When it came the time for TK to get assigned to a fire-house, back when he was fresh off of the Academy, Owen sat down with him and had a really serious talk about the separation between church and state they’d have to pull off; but also the requirement that TK did everything he’d order him to, at that very moment, no questions asked. Of course TK agreed and of course Owen knew it was bullshit, because it was the exact same response he’d given. God, he could see himself in the figure of his son so easily, back when everything was new and ecstatic and it felt like the adventures of the world were out there to be lived. He wanted so much to be able to spare his son from all the hurt and the pain he was about to take on. He wanted to shield TK in bubble-wrap and keep him safe from the atrocities of this world.

But he knew he couldn’t do that. The only thing that’s more damaging for a person’s soul than the reality (and the possibility of failure) of living their dreams, was to never be able to try living it at all. If he denied TK this, he’d probably just push his son away, because TK was never one to listen to what other people said about what he could or couldn’t do anyway. If either him of Gwenyth, in particular, ever let it show a choice from their son displeased them, then that was the extra fuel he needed to carry it through. He’d rather keep TK close, at arm’s length if needed be.

But, damn, every time he saw his son rushing into action and him having to stay behind, a part of Owen died a little inside. After 9/11 and his divorces, his son was his everything, his anchor to life and reality. It might sound egotistical, but he prayed everyday God would never put him through that loss (figuratively, because Owen hadn’t come close to their religion in years). Not this, he pleaded, crying into his pillow in muffled screams of pain while he escaped from the hospital while TK was in coma after getting shot for a shower and a quick nap in a real bed. Or the other times TK almost died and he was at his bedside.

Two minutes after the news on the TV, Owen was already down by the truck suiting up. The alarm hadn’t rung yet, but he knew it would at any given moment, and they’d be on the road as soon as it did. A fire that magnitude was at least a three fire alarm with the potential of growing fast. If he was being sincere, he didn’t believe they’d be able to put it out, but just tame it a little to rescue as many people as they could and let it die out by itself. He didn’t have the blueprints to be sure, but that building seemed old enough to be in all sorts of fire protocol violations. He’d been through too much not to recognize a carnage when he was about to step into one.

Not even Michelle seemed to comprehend the complexity of the scene they were about to walk in to. And it was fair. He trusted her and knew she was excellent at her job, but she wasn’t as experienced as him, especially not with fires and disasters. Everyone was tense getting into the truck. TK gave him a small smile that did nothing to hide the fear in his eyes. Mateo was the only one excited, the poor kid.

When the alarm rang, the fire-truck was already rolling out of the station. With luck, they’d be able to get off-shift in less than 24 hours. Owen prayed to God with everything he had to not let those 24 hours turn into a nightmare.

  
  


—§—

  
  


Carlos blinked his eyes several times. It wasn’t even noon but he couldn’t see properly, and it wasn’t because of the smoke and the ash getting into his eyes and making them wet, although it was happening. It was the despair in the air. He had always hated crowded places, dreaded them growing up in a foreign country for several logical reasons that didn’t exist anymore, but the fear stayed. Now, he wasn’t only in a crowded place, but he was in the middle of pure caos.

It took a long time for him to be able to find a route to get to the street of the burning building, that had been closed off and transformed in a series of tents for several public services to coordinate rescue. Unfortunately, it was the main street of the neighborhood and the fact that it had been closed off threw off a lot of pathways in the area. Also, police seemed to be taking their sweet time to control traffic and crowds, because curious by-standards were everywhere and traffic was a complete mess. Carlos used to love the new cruisers the police department had, but at the moment he never wished for anything else than being on bike patrol.

From all days, this had to be the one his Sargeant asked him to take a rookie with him. It was the girl’s first day. She looked like a teenager still, 19 years old, barely out of the Academy yet. She looked exactly like one expects a newcomer, and Carlos remembered the feeling of being new and outcast – especially being latino and queer in Texas -, so he’d do his best to make her feel welcomed. He suspected his boss partnered them together because she knew he’d be the best choice to be with this girl, too.

Poor Carlos, there was nothing he could do to shield this kid from the horror they were about to step in.

When he was finally able to find the delimited place for public services of support to park on the scene, it looked like hell. Worse, maybe. Carlos had never in his life seen such a tragedy. They pushed through the (badly placed) police barricades and Officer Cameron was already shaking in her boots. Her eyes went up and up to the top of the building and she froze in place. Carlos had a millisecond to follow her eyes and see why. He pulled her to his chest, hiding her eyes in his neck at the moment the body – no, not a body, a _person –_ hit the pavement ten feet away from them.

People were jumping. They were fucking jumping out of the building.

There was smoke everywhere, someone was screaming in a megaphone in the background, people outside of the barricade were also watching and screaming and there was a dead body splashed on the pavement ten feet away from Carlos to which he had to watch the exact moment when this desperate person died: their bones cracked and their organs got stabbed and they became a pool of blood and body parts and Carlos had to watch all the process. No one came to pick them up.

He felt himself go week at the knees. He wanted to turn around and run away. He was sure so did this girl. He’d never be able to erase this image from his mind. Before he had time to think, he felt his legs moving. Someone was screaming for them to get out of there. He held Officer Cameron by the back of the neck to make sure she didn’t look and pulled them away.

He didn’t know where he was going, there were firefighters and paramedics running around covered in dirt and blood. He focused on taking deep breaths and not letting his feet trip over each other. He had no time to think in anything else. He couldn’t let himself think. People needed help and Carlos was the one supposed to help them.

But how was he going to do that?

He finally came to a halt when they passed by an ambulance, close to the barricades in of the corners of the closed off street area. It was hidden enough from public because it was next to the building’s side alley and also the vehicle covered the angle of the splashed body on the pavement. His heart was beating loud in his ears, but Carlos could swear he had listened to two more familiar thuds while trying to get away.

The girl, Jenna, seemed as much as in shock as Carlos himself; but while Carlos chose to put his back against the ambulance for a moment so his legs didn’t have to support all his weight – he was just about to not be able to stand anymore – and to calm down enough so his hands would stop shaking so violently; Jenna took four desperate steps, grabbed the metallic structure of the barricade and puked.

Just as Carlos was trying to gather his thoughts, to focus on his partner instead of on himself and what was happening around them, because compartmentalizing and focusing on other people always helped Carlos think clearer, he heard a familiar voice call his name:

“Carlos?” Michelle came around the side of the ambulance, her eyes blinking a lot and her voice raspy because of the smoke.

She was loading in a patient. The smell of burning flesh polluted the air around her and even Michelle, always so unfazed by everything, had a glint of hopelessness in her eyes. They couldn’t have possibly arrived at the scene way before Carlos did, but she looked so tired.

It took a moment for Carlos’ brain to catch up. Michelle read on his face, his eyes widening as he realized, his question before he asked it.

“Is…” He started

“Yes” Michelle glanced at the other paramedics. They seemed loaded up. Tim looked at her from the rear-view mirror. “They are here. Traffic is a mess, no one is getting through. Helicopters can’t land because of the smoke. We were ordered to assess which patients to take to the hospital first”

Michelle looked desolated. They both knew what this order meant. There were not enough ambulances and City Hall was ordering them to choose who should live and who should die. Carlos’ mind went immediately to TK. His ladder was here, he was in the middle of this mess. Carlos knew TK was excellent at his job, but he couldn’t help worrying about him. He was only human.

“How many ladders on the scene?” He tried to grip a little bit of control he could.

“Two” Michelle replied.

Carlos couldn’t believe it. Two fucking ladder trucks for a 25-story building with no air evacuation possible? People were jumping off because simply there wasn’t help coming in time. There was no need to be a specialist in fire to know this people were dead way before they stepped off the ledge.

As if to wake them up back into the real world, Officer Cameron made another vomiting noise. Carlos unfroze and the adrenaline kicked in. He had to protect Jenna. And find a way to solve this knot the police somehow didn’t untie yet so people could be rescued. Fuck.

“Is she ok?” Michelle asked, one leg inside the ambulance already.

“She will be. Go”

Captain Blake closed the door, and ordered Tim to turn on the sirens, a little more satisfied. The lively fire behind Carlos’ eyes was back, she could feel power coming off of him in waves again; like it was supposed to be. She knew he’d find a way to solve this. If only they had the time…

Officer Reyes straightened his back, checked on Officer Cameron and after getting a confirmation she was better, guided them to go find the police force tent. The only thing he could not shut off was the voice in the back of his head saying TK was here, in the middle of this shitstorm, and if he knew his boyfriend, he’d be in the line of fire, literally. The idiot. His idiot.

But for now, Carlos had a mission. He had a purpose, nothing (actually, very few things) could distract him from it.

  
  


—§—

  
  


“DO NOT JUMP! HELP IS ON THE WAY!” Owen had been screaming with all the force of his lungs for the last ten minutes, but he felt it had little effect.

He could feel the sweat running underneath his thick fire-suit like a river and at this point in his career, it was a psychological reaction alone. Owen was out-of-his-mind desperate.

He didn’t know what else to do. His bosses didn’t know what to do. Fire Chief – the Mayor himself – they had all choked on the face of tragedy. Travis County was supposed to be a small county with little to no accidents, nothing too complicated to deal with. Tragedies like these are never on anyone’s agenda, but first responders are supposed to be trained to deal with it. However, no helicopters could land on the roof because of the smoke and the fire burning hot on the building still. The building was the tallest on it’s quarter and the height of the fire was off reach for any bridging technique. To wait for the fire to die out was to condemn all the trapped victims to certain death. They needed firefighters, as much as they could get, and firetrucks. Possibly airplanes with water. And they needed it now. But no such thing seemed to be happening.

Austin held the banner of innovation high, acted as a progressive pearl in Texas – a red state –, but some things were not as different from everywhere else. This neighborhood was a suburb in the 70’s and 80’s, but gentrification recently turned it into a hub of new businesses. The urban planning and the architecture didn’t follow. The streets were small and narrow: two trucks or two buses couldn’t go through at the same time, and the locals had the costume of parking by the sidewalk. This old-ass building didn’t have a fucking fire escape, and yet, it had a City Hall license to work. It was a recipe for disaster. As soon as the fire broke out, it consumed everything on it’s way fast, everyone on the surroundings coming to the streets to see. News networks came in and contributed to making the streets a mess. Traffic got split between people trying to run from the fire and bystanders trying to take a peak of the tragedy. It was the bad part of the small town demeanor Austin had, even being one of the most populated cities in the country: it didn’t use to be, so people didn’t know how to take care of their own lives instead of sticking their nose in everything and getting in the way of those trying to help. Austin Police Department also choked in the situation and wasn’t able to get a grip of the situation in time, and doing so now seemed more of an impossible mission as the seconds passed. Conclusion: the entire section of the city was now jammed, no one could go in or out.

Only two ladders – firetrucks – made it to the scene: the 126 and the 102. All the others got stuck en route. And Owen only got there because he ordered Paul to go over the sidewalk pushing away everything on it’s path. Michelle took the cue and glued her ambulance to the back of the firetruck so she could go in, but now she was as trapped as them and the worse thing is that rescued people needed hospital care immediately and they didn’t have the means to evacuate them. There were two ambulances. And a building with 500 people trapped in it. No air evac, no ground support coming anytime soon.

Owen coordinated with the Lieutenant of the 102th – from all days, today was their Captain’s day off, making Owen the highest ranking officer on the scene – so each of them would tackle a side of the building: the 102 would take the South and the 126 would take the North. With the wind blowing from North to South, it was the best he could do. However, only two firetrucks were not nearly enough. The ladders didn’t go high enough, it could only go as high as the 12 th  floor. It was the floor were the fire started and although it was all they could do at the moment, the fire spread ed upwards fast and was now burning everything on it’s way with no mercy. Everything on the 12  th  floor was either rescued or dead by now. It was the first floor to catch fire, which meant people had plenty more time to react to it and to escape while it’s spreading didn’t become critical yet, making mobility impossible. While strictly forbidden to do it in a fire, some of the people from the higher floors, realizing there was a fire, were able to escape through the elevators, before they stopped working. Now, the smoke was too thick to try going down even through the stairs. The only way was up, out or to stay inside and die either burned alive, cooked or choked by the smoke. Owen knew there were people that made it to the roof because of the news helicopters surrounding the area that were capable of filming, but not getting too close. On every floor, people were piled and trapped in the narrow breastworks of the building. The water pressure wasn’t enough to hit higher places and when the flames lavished the windows where people were trapped in, as a last resort, they had the natural response of jumping off the building. Some were jumping of their own free will. There wasn’t people available to remove the bodies from the sidewalk, all paramedics on scene were diverged to helping those still alive who had been rescued or escaped the building on their own.

Owen could feel his hands shaking. This was not the worst disaster he had been on, but it was already the second in that list. He was, now, piled up in the top of the stairs, the higher it could go; breaking every protocol in desperation, while Paul and Mateo in the following steps up were managing the firehose. He was at the third step, screaming from the top of his lungs into a megaphone. He was sure it wasn’t enough to pierce through the desperation and desolation that afflicted those people.

Their truck fitted seven firefighters. A driver, the Captain’s seat, four other spots in the back of the cockpit and one seat belonging to the firefighter operating the ladder. Seven. The 102 had six. They both jammed the stairs in position allowing one more firefighter to be free each. TK, Judd, Marjan and Luke were inside. Owen didn’t have the fight nor the arguments to stop TK from throwing himself in the fire. He and Judd had clung to each other so fiercely immediately after Owen released Judd from the job of operating the stairs – the team had been joking about them being wonder twins in the last weeks as a tease, the thought came bitterly flashing through Owen’s mind – and were getting inside the building before Owen barely had time to even trace a strategy to tackle the situation. The 102, with one less member since they didn’t have a Captain that day, had their Lieutenant and a firefighter operating the firehose at the top of the stairs. All the other four firefighters went in as well. They had eight firefighters to clear 25 floors with, each floor with roughly 600 square yards of ground to cover, all the information Owen had was that there were roughly 500 people inside the building when the fire broke out. Owen didn’t have tactical support. No one to think this through with him except the Lieutenant from the 102th, but he sounded like barely a kid, maybe not even 30 years old yet; he didn’t have the experience and the expertise to pull off something like this. So he was also following Owen’s lead. He knew they needed support inside, but he couldn’t free Paul to get in because firefighters can’t work in an uneven number, ever. Inside the building, the eight firefighters would have to divide in teams of two and hope nothing went wrong. If Paul went in, he’d be alone and that was as good as condemning him to die with the victims. Mateo, of course, was chirping on his ear about letting him go in; but from all of his concerns, Mateo’s voice was almost a buzzing of a mosquito grounding him to here and now. And, after all, if he freed Paul to go in, he’d have to manage the firehose, and he was the only one with his arms free. He needed to have access to his radio and to the megaphone.

The only thing the two fire-houses were capable of coordinating, was that the 4 firefighters from the 102 came in through 126 th  Ladder, because of the direction of the wind. This way, all eight firefighters walked in the building together, and Owen told each team of two to clean one floor. The right way to do this was to find a safe path, go to the highest floor and start evacuating people from top to bottom. Owen didn’t have the man-power. Nor the time. And honestly, in these settings, the higher the floor, the higher the risk for the firefighters. So they’d have to go from the bottom up and help who they could find, instead of evacuating. For each person they’d find, it’d be one more flight of stairs to take. Owen calculated they’d be burnt-out before they could get to 20 people.

20 out of 500. That’s how many people he could, maybe, help. Considering everything went alright with his own people. If one or more firefighters got injured, he’d have to pull out everyone before the scenario got too dangerous for all of them. He’d be cutting the only thread of hope to these people getting any help. One more hour and the entire building would be a mausoleum.

He took a deep breath through his mouth. Screaming was pointless and he was starting to feel breathless. If his fucking lung cancer went off now, from all times, it was over.

“Captain Strand, Ladder 102 informs they’re on one-quarter of a tank” Grace’s voice came through the static radio. Of course Grace was the one coordinating dispatch. The poor woman had to listen to her husband walk in into another certain slaughter.

And of fucking course the water in their trucks is running out. Of fucking course.

“10-4, dispatch”

Owen felt like jumping as well.

“126, status” He demanded.

“Marwani, eye”

“Williams, eye”

“We’re on 12th floor, Captain. Sweeping through the northwest corner” Marjan’s voice came through once again, choked up. It was the safest floor to take, and it should be the faster do a sweep on. In the other hand, cleaning it up fast meant they’d rise up to the higher unoccupied floor first.

The higher the floor, the higher the risk. The phrase kept pulsing in Owen’s brain. And an instant before TK’s voice came through the radio, he already knew what his son was about to say.

“Strand, eye”

“Ryder, eye” Grace was connected to Owen’s radio. He heard the moment she let out her breath on the other side of the line.

“15th floor. Getting there now” TK’s voice came on again, confirming Owen’s suspicion. Judd and TK chose to get the higher possible floor.

“126, how many 10-79’s?”

“Thirteen” This time, Luke’s voice came through the radio. Owen closed his eyes and took another breath. Thirteen people dead.

“How many rescued?”

“Zero, Captain” Marjan’s voice was almost a whisper, breathed out on the radio. She was sparing energy, he figured.

“Dispatch, tell me you have good news, please”

“Captain Stand, Police is not able to reach your location by car. All available units are being counseled to go by foot, on bicycle or motorbike”

This was it. Owen lost his last straw of patience, his last tether to reality, his last notion of chain of command.

“This has got to be a joke. You’re sending support by foot?”

Owen looked up. There were four helicopters flying by. Three belonging to News Channels, one to the Fire Department. He knew who was on that last helicopter.

“Dispatch, patch me through to Fire Chief Radford”

“10-12”

Owen heard the line go static for a second. He didn’t wait for his boss to breathe into the line.

“Alden, I need support. Now. I need it here. Where is it?”

“Captain Strand - “

“Don’t bullshit me, Alden. Where is it?” Owen pressed.

“There is no way for support -”

Owen didn’t let the man finish the sentence. He pushed the button on his radio again. Was he losing his damn mind or was everyone around him doing so?

“Grace, patch me through the Police Commissioner”

This might seemed to take Grace aback.

“Hm, Captain Strand, 10-9” She said, voice stiff.

“Police Commissioner, Grace, _**NOW**_ ” He commanded into the radio. Owen knew he didn’t have clearance, permission or right to give orders to dispatch, things worked the other way around. He didn’t give a shit.

The line went silent for a moment.

Then it came back on, Grace’s voice was waving.

“Captain Strand, you’re on speaker”

“Captain Strand, this is Mayor Adler. I’m at 9-1-1 dispatch -”

“Where is the support I’ve been asking for over half an hour? Where is the Police Traffic Control cleaning up the streets? Where are the ambulances? Where’s my air support?” Owen screamed into the radio. His eyes stung and his breath came in puffs, like we was about to break into tears at any second. He didn’t know yet if he was about to cry or have a panic attack.

“Captain Strand, we - “

“Where is the damn water plane? OH GOD” Owen’s voice failed him as another body zoomed down two feet to his right. He felt like his knees were about to fail him. He embraced Mateo’s torso with one arm and held on the handrail with the other. The megaphone fell to the ground, breaking in a thousand pieces. The Mayor kept going on and on, on the other side of the line with excuses, but Owen couldn’t register them.

He was there again. He was at 9/11. People were dying and there was nothing he could do.

All he could do was to breathe in and out, do the exercises his therapist told him and had been working all these years. Count his breaths.

“Cap, you alright?” Mateo’s voice came over his shoulder, concerned.

“Five. Stairs. Firehose. Mateo. Building. Fire. Four. Handrail. Fire uniform. Radio. Mateo. Three. Screaming. Chirping of fire. Helicopters. Two. Mateo. Burning flesh. One. Mateo’s sweat”

Five things you can see. Four things you can touch. Three things you can hear. Two things you can smell. One thing you can taste. He might’ve cheated a little mentioning Mateo several times, but he was out of options.

He let the world stop with him for that moment. He needed it. If the people with him on the line didn’t get that, then fuck them. Mateo stopped talking. Paul realized what was happening and took charge. Paul had him, a voice in the back of Owen’s mind said, quiet at first, but it said it again louder. And louder. It was his consciousness coming back to him.

He took another breath, licked his dried lips to wet them and his trembling hand went for his radio.

“Grace, take me off speaker”

“But Captain Strand-”

“Off, Grace” He repeated, almost calm now.

The line went static for a second again.

“Grace, what I’m about to ask of you might be a lot and this request breaks many, many laws just to be said out loud. But if we don’t do it, I’m not sure I can pull all of them out” It wasn’t a threat, not really. It was the truth. Without support, there was no chance Owen could get all of his firefighters out, if any at all. He was asking Grace, especifically, because he knew her and knew there were lines she’d cross, even with the fucking pope breathing down her neck, much less the Mayor. To get Judd out, she’d do anything. “I need you to engage in civil disobedience, Grace”

There was a moment of silence. Then, tapping on a keyboard and hushed voices. Something was happening on the other side.

“I’m a black woman in Texas, Captain Strand. Me being here is an act of civil disobedience” Her voice finally came through the radio. He didn’t know what happened on the other side of the line, but he was happy it worked out.

“I need you to get me through those news helicopters. Can you do that?”

“On it”

Owen heard a keyboard being harshly tapped on the other side. It took enough time for Owen to realize the firehose wasn’t at full stretch anymore. The water was about to end. He was sure Paul realized it too.

On the other side, Grace was speaking with several other voices on the line. Finally, she came through.

“Captain Strand, these are the flight control from the airport, all three pilots and all the journalists on the helicopters as you asked for” Owen blinked. Grace was good, damn, even the journalists? “It means you’re live, Captain” She added.

“Good. Listen up, everybody. There’s no one coming. No plane, helicopter or firetruck is arriving in time. I hereby commandeer all of your helicopters. I know it’s extremely dangerous, but I beg you, in the name of the people of Austin, please, please, help” Owen cried into the radio. The fact that this speech was live on three different News Channels both helped him immensely and incriminated him in broad daylight.

Of course, no one said anything.

“Grace?”

“They heard you, Owen” She returned to him. She was about to burst crying too, when a voice came through:

“What do you need us to do, Captain?” He didn’t know who it was, but Owen let out a sob of relief.

“I need you to circle around the building, get close and take as many people from the breastworks as you can. Go from the lowest floors up, this way you’ll face less smoke and you’ll clear ground for my firefighters inside. We have bigger chances of saving more people like this”

“What about the people on the roof, Captain?”

“There’s too much smoke and the fire is too active and tall to risk approaching the building directly from above. By air, the people on the roof will have to be the last rescued”

The last rescued usually weren’t rescued alive, Owen didn’t add.

He then heard a shower of affirmative responses coming through the radio. Two minutes later, the helicopters starter circling the building, going lower and closer. Owen cleaned the sweat from his face on his coat.

“Grace, if you can keep me live on TV and radio; but I also need you to patch me through every official radio channel in the county”

“This will take a little more time, Owen” They were first name basis now. Fuck the Mayor. Fuck the Fire Chief. Owen’s last hope was the people.

The people never disappointed him. They came to his rescue on 9/11. They’d come to his rescue again. He hoped they would. It was all he could do. Hope they’d be there when he needed them as they hoped Owen would be there when they needed him. And he was. Has always been.

“Cap, we’re dry” Paul’s voice came through the haze in his brain. Owen blinked to focus the light in the middle of the smoke and the ash. He could hear his heart beating on his ears.

Owen looked over the firehose like it was a foreign object.

“Cap, what are your orders?”

Owen looked from the firehose to the two boys on the stairs with him.

“Seventeenth floor is yours” Owen felt his mouth move, but he didn’t remind wanting to speak, much less which words. Paul jumped inside the building so fast on this order, like he had been ready for it his entire life. He then proceeded to help the probie climb the window too. “Hey, Strickland” Owen called and Paul, who was taking a step further inside already, had to turn back to him. “Don’t let him out of your sight”

Paul nodded. They disappeared inside the building.

Thirty seconds later:

“Ladder 102 is out, Captain. What are your orders?”

“Go in. Eighteenth floor”

Breaking protocol again, the Lieutenant from the other fire-house didn’t argue. He gestured to Owen from afar, and went in with his partner.

Owen took the firehose and climbed down from the stairs. Then, he ran through the mess of paper sheets scattered on the streets where the paramedics were placing both patients who weren’t critical and corpses. In the blur of the race, Owen couldn’t distinguish which was which and the thought terrified him. He climbed the 102 Ladder and pulled their firehose down too. In case any of the stairs needed to be used, they needed to be free.

There were more cops now. All the paramedics were busy with patients, but the cops were collecting the splashed bodies of the victims who jumped from the sidewalk.

There was also a police tent, somehow they found the time and resources to set up one. In the middle on the mayhem, Owen saw glances of a perfectly gelled curly hair, an impossibly straight-shaped neck, honey bronze skin and big arms gesticulating emphatically all around.

From the corner of his eye, Owen could see cops pushing the barricades further into the street and bossing civilians around to get out of the way. He knew this could only be the doings of one man. God, TK really hit the jackpot this time, didn’t he?

He placed a hand on his firetruck to recover his air, hand on his radio again.

“126, 102, status”

The line chimed a little as Grace juggled digitally to reroute him to his team. He repeated the question.

One after the other, they poured in through the radio confirming at least livelihood. Owen’s heart always stopped in these moments until TK came through.

Paul and Mateo had just gotten to their assigned floor. The 102 teams had 6, 1 and 2 victims each from their floors so far. The team from the 13 th  floor, with 6 victims on them, had already finished their floor and were awaiting for orders. They were expecting their Lieutenant to give them, apparently. Marjan and Luke hadn’t found anyone alive yet. Only then, after everyone checked in, TK came through. Sometimes, just sometimes, Owen wished his son wasn’t so much like him.

“Strand and Ryder, eye. We’re a three” He punched breathlessly into the radio.

“Why do you sound breathless, where is your oxygen mask?”

“The victims couldn’t breathe, sir” It was Judd who replied, also breathless, only slightly less than TK. Of fucking course. Between the two of them, Owen doubted there was a single neuron working.

Owen was so pissed. Accuse him of favoritism if you want. He didn’t care anymore. He was mainly pissed because it was obviously the same thing he would’ve done in their shoes.

He took a breath and spoke again.

“Listen up, everybody. We’re running out of time. Victims who can walk, go down the stairs on their own. Victims who can walk will have to carry amongst themselves those who can’t. How many of yours can move, report”

The six lower victims from the 13 th  floor all could walk. One from the 14  th  and one from the 18  th  couldn’t. Owen instructed the team from the 14  th  floor meet on the stairs with the team from the 13  th  so they could carry the victim who couldn’t move. The one who could move on the 18  th  would have to carry down the one who couldn’t on their own.

One of the firefighters of the 102 tried to question the logic, saying the six victims from the 13 th  floor who could walk could also help the one from the 18  th  to carry down the injured. But was immediately shut down by their Lieutenant. He told them to take orders from Owen without questioning. The longer the victims stayed inside, the worse their chances. No matter all the laws he could bend, at the end of the day Owen had to focus on getting out as many as people alive as he could. If that meant some of them would have to be egotistical at this moment, so be it.

TK and Judd, again, were being difficult.

“They can’t make it down without the masks, Cap”

“And you can’t go up without them. The smoke is thicker the higher you climb. You get out alive so you can help more people further on. You keep the masks. I’m sorry, but they’ll have to make do”

“They’re two women with burns all over their bodies, and the incapacitated is a tall man with an exposed fracture on his tibia. He was trapped and we pulled him out, he can’t move, sir. We’ll have to take him down” TK pleaded through the radio.

Owen knew first hand how much burn wounds hurt. To have anything in contact with the area, barely a cloth, was excruciating pain. To make any effort was like pulling the soul out of one’s body but, in the moment, survival instinct would have to take over for them. Humans can do incredible things when driven to the edge.

“Fine, you come down, you’re not going up again”

The line went dead for a moment. Then he heard patches of voices.

“You can’t…”

“If it wasn’t for you guys we’d be dead anyway”

“They need it…”

“You need it more, there’s more people to help”

“No! You’re taking me down, they’ll drop me”

“I don’t know what to do”

“You don’t have to know, we’ve already made up our minds”

“Hurry up, guys!”

Then, another moment of nothingness.

“Fine. They’re going down”

“Great, are you done?” Owen asked.

“There are people in the windows on the southeast corner, but it’s where the fire is stronger at the moment. Too many debris to go through” Judd spoke.

“Don’t worry, helicopters are taking care of the windows and breastworks. Go up, twentieth floor” 102’s first team, the one that didn’t abide Owen’s authority at first, was already on their way up to the 19th floor. They had cleared a good number of floors already. Maybe there was hope yet.

Just as Owen breathed a moment of hope, Marjan’s scream came blowing through the radio. It froze Owen’s spine on the spot.

He could feel all of his team grabbing their radios at the same time to the awful sound.

“Marjan! Luke! Report now!” He screamed into his radio, eyes roaming the mess.

He could see Michelle desperate, performing CPR in a patient on the ground with one hand and soaking another with saline with her other hand. Saline was not indicated as first choice to treat burn victims, the ambulance must’ve been running out of resources. CPR with just one hand was a desperate move also and Owen doubted the woman had thought that one through because it’d have little effect. But then, again, with the amount of victims they had, sadly, anyone that far gone had little chance of making it through. Earlier, he saw from the corner of his eye, the sirens light up and Michelle trying to get out with her ambulance. She didn’t. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the traffic or if her patient didn’t need an ambulance anymore.

“She’s ok, Captain! She’s okay!” Williams said into his radio at the same time Marjan was screaming into it. Her radio button must’ve gotten jammed.

“THEY’RE DEAD! THEY’RE ALL DEAD!” She sounded hysterical. Owen had never seen her like this. It was so unlike her, it raised the hairs in the back of his neck.

“Luke, what’s happening up there?”

There was the sound of static in and out of the line. Like if someone was beating on the microphone. Marjan and Luke were fighting, Owen guessed.

“Hey, hey! Knock it off! Knock it off! Don’t make me go up there”

“Calm down, Marwani! Chill, for Christ’s sakes”

“It’s your fault, this is your fault!”

“Stop this at once! We don’t have time for this” Owen commanded. “Williams, report”

They were quiet for a moment. Only the sound of their heavy breathing on the line.

“We…” Luke cleared his dry throat, but it only made matters worse. It felt like he had sand in his vocal cords. It was ash. “We heard knocking coming from the elevator pit on the 12th floor. There was no access there. No easy access from any of the following floors. We came to the 16th and there was access to the elevators. The noise was lower, but was still there when we arrived. I said we should clear the floor first and check out the elevators last because we saw fire in the pit on the 12th, but considering the small space and limited supply of air, I guessed it’d die out soon enough and we’d be able to have access. On the 16th, all survivors were on breastworks, but the orders were to leave them to air evac”

People with access to open air, on the breastworks, had bigger chances. The ones who really needed help would be those trapped inside, if smoke hadn’t got to them yet. Which, at this point in time, would be a miracle. At no surprise to Owen, the higher the floor, the less victims were being found alive.

Considering the time it took for a helicopter to land and to take flight, the amount of people a non-military helicopter could fit and the risks involving jumping from a breastwork into it; things were not looking so bright for Owen on that front either. He couldn’t think about that right now. He had to have hope things would work out.

“Go on”

“We swept through the floor, did what we could’ve done. No survivors” Luke came in again. He sounded like he was about to cry. Which… Was funny, because he was one of the biggest men on the team, true Texan fashion. Always asserting his masculinity. Well, guess not as funny considering the situation. “We came to check on the elevators even though we couldn’t hear the tapping anymore. When we opened it…”

Owen could guess where this story leaded.

“THEY WERE DEAD! THEY WERE ALL DEAD! BECAUSE YOU SAID WE HAD TIME, WE SHOULD CLEAR THE FLOOR FIRST. THEY WERE ALL COOKED INSIDE THERE, THEIR FLESH MELTED TOGETHER, WILLIAMS! I COULDN’T EVEN TELL HOW MANY THEY WERE, WE LET THEM DIE” Marjan screamed again and Owen could hear the sound of punching. She was going at her partner again, but Owen wasn’t really concerned for Luke in that department.

He knew the feeling too well. Not being able to save them. Making a wrong call. Watching them die. And it’s your fault. Right now, it was Marjan who was spiraling. But in the future, if there was one, it was Luke Williams Owen had to keep an eye on for.

This was it. The two of them were in no condition to help no one anymore.

“Luke, have you cleared the entire floor?” He asked as softly as he could manage.

“We did”

“Come down. You’re done for the day”

“But, sir…” Luke asked, in surprise, at the same time as Marjan emitted a “WHAT?”

“Come down, now, that’s an order. And don’t you dare disobey me, Marjan”

Owen honestly didn’t have the fight at the moment, and Marjan could be an extremely difficult person to deal with. She was even more stubborn than Judd when she wanted to be. Like everything today, Owen could only accept it wasn’t under his control and hope for the best.

Luckily, before an argument could break out, Grace came through again.

“Owen, we’re ready for you”

His throat was dry, but he couldn’t think of where to get water at the moment. He was thirsty. He tried to swallow, but there was no saliva in his mouth. And he needed to wash away the ashes that were basically people that had been burned alive.

He clicked his radio.

“Austin, this is Captain Owen Strand again. As you know, the roads are blocked. We need help. If you own a motorcycle, stop what you’re doing, swing by the nearest fire-station or police station and give a ride to a firefighter, a paramedic or a cop. Officers are on the ground trying to organize traffic, but they’re still not enough. If you’re stuck in the traffic in the area and you can listen to this, I ask you to move your car over the sidewalk. Do what you can. Knock down mail boxes if needed. Pedestrians, please help to move away anything on the way of the drivers. Clear the middle of the street so help can get to us. If you own a plane for farming purposes, I beg you to fill it with water and bring it. If you own a helicopter, I beg you that you bring it to help. We need you, Austin. These people need help and the only ones who can grant it to them at the moment are the people of Austin” He finished his monologue clicking off his radio. He knew people were watching him all over. He couldn’t care less about the attention and the opinions.

Owen was exhausted. Most of all, he was tired of being on his own, carrying on his shoulders the weight of the impossible tactical decisions. No one makes it alone in this world, and firefighting was a team sport. He was used to have a support system to lean on, people to share the load and to help. Owen despised being alone. He was alone once. When he was the only one to walk into the 252th NYC fire-house, one month after 9/11.

His knees failed him and he fell to the ground, sitting on the curb by the firetruck, head hanging low. He had done all he could.

As if in time, a group of survivors came pouring through the main entrance of the building. The first group rescued by the firefighters. Owen cried, but no tears came out.

  
  


—§—

  
  


Way above the mayhem and the horror of the street, Judd glanced at TK just as his dad’s speech ended.

“Wow. That was something else, kid”

“Yeah, he’s my dad” TK answered, that light of pride in his eyes that always came to be when Owen did something cool – or heroic – was the only thing that made one be able to differentiate TK from a pile of rubble. That glint in his eye could make TK look like the prettiest person in any room and Judd understood why Carlos wasn’t able to resist at the first time they met.

He and Judd were soaked in dirt and ash all over, it wasn’t possible to see the color of their skin anymore.

They started swiping through the 20 th  floor. There was a lot of smoke, dark smoke and it was hotter than their last assigned floor. The fire was alive still, there were combustible for it to go through in this (and the floors above) yet. While what they had seen before was complete desolation of fire that had swept through everything in it’s path, now they could see a little bit more of it in action and try to understand what was happening and why. Not that they had much time to reflect, but to have minimal understanding was crucial in times when was necessary make life or death decisions for yourself and others. The previous floors were like warehouses, big open spaces of retorted metal and rubble. They were still trying to figure out how the fire was burning so hot and why – therefore the oxygen masks. If the reason why the fire was so unwavering was because it was chemical, they’d be in even deeper trouble. But after clearing out two floors already, they didn’t have much time – or air.

It was so hard to see they both turned on their flashlights. It was a little past midday, they couldn’t be sure how much time they were in, but no sunlight was cutting though the smoke. TK could see two feet in front of his face, at best. And he could see better than Judd, he had been realizing lately that his brother was trying to hide he was having difficulty with reading small letter words, trying not to raise suspicions by not reading anything in front of the crew. Ever since TK realized it, he had been intervening, reading things for Judd. It seemed like reading was his only problem and it was quite usual for people over a certain age, but for firefighters, having a 20/20 vision was a must-be of the job. If anyone suspected his vision wasn’t as sharp as an 18 year old, Judd would be moved to a desk job faster than he could say “yee-haw” and TK knew this would kill him. Therefore, even with no words spoken on the matter, he was supporting his brother; the less they talked about it the better, because he knew if his dad caught wind of this, they’d both be in deep trouble. He trusted Judd to be the amazing firefighter that he was even if he couldn’t read the fucking small letters in the back of the cereal box. Whoever wrote these stupid rules didn’t know anything about actual firefighting anyway, TK reasoned, because there was no way a firefighter would have to read small letters in a practical situation.

Paul and Grace, obviously, realized what was going on. Ms. Ryder was preparing herself psychologically for the sit-down she’d have to have with her husband to explain to him why he needed to see an ophthalmologist about this issue, but she was still recovering from the efforts of getting him to therapy.

Paul, on his instance, knew Judd’s problem was actually quite simple to solve with a simple surgery; but since his opinion was not requested, he wouldn’t give it.

And therefore on went the wonder twins, making everything harder on themselves by default. However, in this moment, they wouldn’t choose anyone else to have their backs.

Judd threaded his gloved fingers in the back of TK’s coat and let his brother guide him through the mess.

“The wind is blowing from North to South. It’ll change direction the closer we get to sunset” Judd started. It was the first floor they were on with active huge fire consuming it, so they’d have to calculate their moves well.

TK understood what his brother was doing and added:

“The stairs are roughly on the west of the building and with this much smoke, there’s still a lot of combustible available to feed it, which means the fire is still strong and it’s safer for us to bet it has burned half of the available combustible”

“Which means we should avoid getting to the middle of the floor, or straight ahead. We move through the sidelines. Either North where the fire has already burned or the South corner where it might not have burned it all yet” Judd tried not to sound too commanding, even though he was the most experienced one; he’d leaned to respect TK’s expertise. He was calmly stating facts so they could reach a conclusion.

“So we don’t move forward, we find a way either left in the direction where the fire already burned everything and died out and it’s safer for us; or we go right where it’s more dangerous but it’s more likely we’ll find survivors in time” TK followed his line of thought perfectly.

Enunciating everything took precious oxygen and time, but they had to do it. Both of them had communications problems which they were trying to get better at through therapy. The lack of mutual understanding, of being able to have a conversation, led them to a fist fight once. They swore they wouldn’t let it happen again. Talking it out loud so both of them could hear and understand was crucial for their dynamic, both professional and personal.

TK turned around and looked at Judd.

“We don’t have much oxygen left. We have to make it count” Judd said.

“So we swipe right” TK decided, to which the other man nodded. If they had other team of two, they could clear the entire floor, but with time running out and the possibility of them breaking apart to cover more ground out of the table; it was the best they could do. Judd didn’t like to think about it, but they were rolling the dice with people’s lives by choosing who to save.

TK reached in the dark and moved forward carefully, trying to find the wall with his right arm.

“Without blueprints, we’ll have to find out way through on sheer luck and try-and-error” He said. Then his arm reached solid material and he started running his hand across it forward.

“Don’t go to far forward. This hallway is straight, it’ll lead us to the middle of the floor” Judd pointed out.

“Which is not what we want, got it” TK nodded and took two steps forward, when his hand came through an irregularity on the wall. He stopped and, intrigued, only then came the idea of knocking. He did it. Judd didn’t question it, but when they both heard the tone of the knock, they became a little more aware of the sweat running on their backs.

“Wood. Wooden walls” TK whispered in disbelief.

This was just another one in what was maybe the longest list of fire-hazard violations he had ever seen in an inhabited construction in his life. The fire was being kept alive by, amongst other factors, wood as combustible. Fuck, if this was the layout in every floor, it explained the destruction they’d seen and made the work, going up, even harder.

Another two steps forward, TK came across an opening which, upon verifying it was a doorway and that it was safe to cross it, he kicked down the door and pulled Judd with him. Entering in the new room immediately made them feel hotter, getting closer to the fire. In the other hand, visibility was better and they could kind of see the floors and the walls, along with a lot of office stuff like chairs and tables. They could see the outline of a door in the other side of the room.

“AUSTIN FIRE AND RESCUE! IS THERE ANYONE IN HERE?” Judd started and TK followed suit. They broke apart to investigate two different aisles, but always in each other’s line of sight.

They hadn’t found anything until TK saw a table suspiciously out of place, like someone had ran into it. He crouched to investigate. The first thing he saw was a pair of low deep blue heels. Then legs and then he was already on the body, looking for a head and to assess if there was a pulse. The woman’s clothes had holes burned through it all over the torso, arms, hips and legs. Like if she had been showered with peppered fire. TK filed that information for later, right now focusing on seeing if she was alive.

“There’s a pulse! Judd, I got one!”

Upon calling, Judd jumped over a couple of tables and was crouched besides TK in no time.

“She’s out?”

“It seems like it. We don’t have a collar, much less a hammock. What do we do?”

“Can you see if she’s injured and where?” Judd asked.

By being smaller, TK crammed himself – even in full gear suit – underneath the table with the victim. Her pulse was not erratic and upon a quick feel-up exam, TK couldn’t find any broken bones. She was more or less okay, for their standards so far. He crossed his fingers mentally and carefully moved her hear around to take a look. She had a nasty cut on the left side of her face, across her hairline. There was a small pool of blood underneath her on the carpeted (!) floor. It had started coagulating, but when TK turned her head around, the wound pumped out some fresh blood.

“Large cut on the left side of her face. Give me some gauze, some alcohol and some antiseptic” TK was carrying medical supplies, but at this angle he couldn’t reach it, so Judd dove in his back pouch, not even batting an eye at the fact that he was inevitably feeling TK’s ass through the layers of fabric because of it.

Judd searched around a little, gathered the items and offered them to TK.

TK took them immediately close to the woman’s face, but when he was about to remove the cap, he turned to Judd and said:

“Judd, this is not antiseptic. You got me lube” If they weren’t in a life and death situation, TK’d swear this was a bad taste joke. The kind of his boundless dad might’ve pulled off.

“Really? Let me see this” Judd took the small flask close to his face and almost jammed it into his mask trying to read the label. TK could tell he wasn’t able to see a single letter in it.

After pretending to analyze it for a few seconds, Judd shrugged and went for the medical supplies again. A few tries and he got it right. TK said nothing. He only watched his brother with a sad look on his face and Judd tried not to face him, deeply embarrassed.

TK reached for the supplies and quickly cleaned the wound the best he could. He held the gauze in place and crossed some alcohol on the woman’s nose. She took a moment, but started coming back to herself.

“Ma’am. Ma’am. Can you hear me?”

“Yes” She replied with a tired voice of someone who had inhaled too much smoke. She motioned to move her hear in a natural reflex, but TK intervened.

“Ma’am, I’m with Austin Fire and Rescue. Please do not move”

“Okay” She returned and stopped her attempts.

“Do you remember hitting your neck? Do you have any injuries or acute pains?”

“No. Just my head. I was trying to run out, but on the mess of people trying to do the same, I tripped on a chair and fell. Hit my head on the table and was out” TK thought how lucky she was that the same table she hit her head on also shielded her from being stepped on by all the people trying to run away as well. Also, the fact that she remembered so much and could tell it in detail was a great sign.

“Great. We’ll try to get you seated then, ok?” TK nodded in Judd’s direction, but his brother was already picking up the woman’s legs, as TK held the gauze to her head with one hand and with the other he pulled them both from under the table. She moaned in pain and discomfort. They seated her with her back to the wall. TK crouched again and did a thorougher exam on her. She didn’t seem in risk of anything except some burns and a concussion.

“So?” Judd asked when he was done.

“I don’t see anything too concerning. Maybe a concussion”

“So she won’t be able to go down alone?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it, no”

“Should we take her with us?”

“To the line of fire?”

“What other option we have?”

“She could wait here for us”

“She’s hurt and afraid, TK. She probably has a concussion. The last thing she can be right now is alone” TK took a deep breath and turned around to the woman again.

“What’s you name, ma’am?”

“Susan”

“Susan, I am firefighter Strand and my partner is firefighter Ryder”

“I’d like to say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but given the circumstances I’d be lying” She cracked a smile.

“Oh, she’s alive alright” Judd let out a laugh.

“Susan, we have a problem here. There were a lot of complications and major help wasn’t able to arrive. So we’re running on very short staff and resources. We need to know if you think you can go down the stairs alone. It’s just across the door on the end of the room, 20 feet to the left”

“Yeah, I know, I’ve worked in this building for 25 years” She sounded tired. TK had to do anything to keep her awake, so he quickly fired:

“Wow, that’s impressive, Susan. But do you think you can?”

“I don’t know, I feel a little dizzy”

TK and Judd exchanged a look. They had a decision to make and had three options. 1 – Go forward with Susan, but if she lost consciousness or couldn’t walk anymore she’d slow them down and put them all at risk. 2 – Send Susan off alone and risk her not getting out alive. 3 – Taking her and getting out now, leaving all other potential survivors in need of help unattended.

They both knew what Owen would order them to do if they consulted him. It was the option both of them were less inclined to choose.

“Do you think you can walk?”

“Yes. I just need some help getting to my feet” TK complied and helped her rise to her feet. She took a second to find her center of gravity again, but otherwise seemed to be standing on her own fine.

Susan was, TK guessed, about her late 50’s or early 60’s. She was wearing a matching deep blue suit and skirt, very traditional, the way only older women working in a bank or law firm in Texas would wear; or maybe a congresswoman. She was white and her bottle blonde hair that in the beginning of the day must’ve been perfectly tailored, now was a mess of dirt, ash and dry blood. She didn’t look too unfazed by it, though. She was tall, almost as tall as TK himself, and there was something about her, the way she stood, the way she presented herself; even in the state she was in now; that gave TK the impression she was not someone to be messed with.

“Great, now I need you to keep pressure on your wound for me. Here” He guided her hand over his in the left side of her face.

“What do you meant when you said you had some complications?”

“Hm. When the fire broke out, traffic was at a natural peak and it got worse with curious people coming to see what was happening. Traffic jammed in a matter of minutes. No one could get through. Ours and another one were the only firetrucks able to arrive” Judd chewed his lips inside while he explained. He felt like they were taking too much time with this. Every passing second his gut screamed louder for him to get out of there. If only his thick head would follow.

“So, what are you saying?” She looked between them like she already understood what they were trying to say.

“Us two are the only firefighters available for this entire floor, ma’am. You’re the first victim we find. We should take you down, but we could be leaving a lot of people behind and we’re their only chance. So we either send you down on your own, because we can’t break apart from double formation for our safety and the safety of the people we’re trying to help; or we take you with us forward into the fire to look for survivors” TK concealed one option, because it wasn’t really an option for them. To walk away from danger, neither him or Judd knew what that meant.

Susan blinked several times, not like TK and Judd were expecting an answer from her; but if she was waiting for one from them. In reality, she thought it was ridiculous.

“It’s not really a choice, is it? I’m not safe if I’m not with you guys” She said, finally. She kind of looked over it, if you asked TK. She seemed like the kind of assertive woman, powerful woman, that had no time for bullshit, was always in control… It reminded him of his mom.

“Are you sure, Susan? We don’t know how things are in here, there are so many things that could go wrong, you’d be risking your life in so many ways…” Judd told her, patronizing. TK could see it in her face that a man patronizing her was one of her least favorite things in life and that she had very little patience for it. Again, just like his mom.

“Yeah, yeah. It sounds like we don’t have the time for this blah blah blah, so let’s go”

TK and Judd exchanged another look, having a quick wordless chat. TK shrugged and Judd nodded. TK turned around in the direction of the door. Judd motioned for Susan to stay between them. He quickly scanned the room with his eyes one last time and followed.

The next room was immediately hotter. There was no fire, but it had been ravaged but it already. Everything was chiming as the ember slowly consumed the last of the combustible available. Again, there was burned and retorted metal stuff all around and the wall to the left was no longer there, consumed by the fire. It also seemed like it spread in that direction. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the previous room had no windows and the flux of air guided the fire somewhere else.

“This used to be a room where we kept files in… There’s nothing left” Susan commented.

“Yeah, you’re lucky it didn’t spread to that room we found you in while you were out of it” Judd said and immediately regretted it.

Susan didn’t reply. Probably contemplating all the ways she could’ve died, but didn’t.

TK cleared his throat.

“Ok, let’s clear this room. Then we’ll see how we’ll go about walking around this floor”

“Oh, don’t worry. I know every room in this place… But considering how the walls have also been consumed, it doesn’t seem like it’s necessary” Susan offered. Ok, maybe having someone in their corner that actually knew the layout of the place might help save precious time.

“So… How should we proceed?” TK turned to Judd. It was logic, Judd was more experienced and TK learned his lesson about respecting and valuing Judd’s expertise.

“We can’t go around anti-clock wise, because we could get trapped in the other side of the line of fire, even if it was out best bet. So I suggest we go carefully left, find the hotter spots at the moment and assess. After that, we come back North”

“Great, it sounds like a plan”

TK lowered his visor and led the way through the nonexistent left wall of the room. Smoke was thick and dark again, but they could see a flux of air carrying it slowly in their right direction. Susan coughed. It clicked in TK’s mind only then: she didn’t have an oxygen mask. He turned around to speak to her, but the woman beat him to it: she took out her blazer and covered her face with it.

“Are you ok, Susan?”

“Yeah, let’s keep going” She replied, muffled against the fabric.

Shit, this was such a bad idea. But it was the only option they had now.

“AUSTIN FIRE AND RESCUE! IS THERE ANYONE IN HERE?” They started announcing again.

They started moving slowly and steadily forward, looking to identify where the fire was worse at at the moment, but also to see if they could find anyone unconscious, like Susan.

Neither of the two men thought of looking up. Nor Susan thought of speaking why her clothing had holes like that.

From that point on, visibility was consistently compromised again, but the lack of walls in the majority of rooms they were in helped the air to circulate and not to turn it into a gas chamber. It also brought more oxygen to feed the flames, so it wasn’t actually a win. The majority of the places where the wooden walls should’ve been were now empty, but some rubble had survived. Like the floors before, there was only shadows and rubble where furnishings had once been. Fire consumed everything except metal, but it was hot enough to turn it into piles of retorted garbage.

They had cleared three rooms; at least they thought they were three, it was difficult to differentiate; and found 7 bodies in various degrees of burns and injuries when they finally heard signs of life. Both Judd and TK tried to shield Susan from having to see the bodies, but she didn’t seem much bothered by it. Judd, on the other hand, when saw a cramped up body next to what once must’ve been a door that person couldn’t open and therefore got inevitably burned alive on the spot; almost puked on his mask. He was strong, he had many years on the job, he was a professional. But he was also human. He was glad he hadn’t been paired with Sherlock Holmes today, because neither TK or Susan realized he was having a minor breakdown. He hated being vulnerable. TK kept going forward. At this point they could follow the heat by feel.

Sure enough, 10 feet forward, around the corner of a pillar, when TK screamed his standard warning phrase, he got a response.

“Here! Over here! Help” A male voice came across the smoke.

The crisping fire now threw light on the room, being so close. The flames lavished the room high, from floor to ceiling, but it wasn’t equal. There were some spots where one could cross the line, if careful and equipped enough. But even being uneven, the fire was dangerous and burning rapidly everything in it’s path.

Of course, the voice claiming for help was coming from the other side of the fire.

“Stay here, Susan” Judd commanded and both him and TK found an opening through which both of them could cross, thanks also to their suits being highly resistant to fire.

“Doesn’t this building have sprinklers?” TK thought as he jumped over a pile of metal that ceased the line of fire enough for them to deem it safe to go over. Judd was right behind him, not a step out of sync. TK had to admit, they fought over their egos at the beginning – typical macho behavior, trying to assert your territory – but now that they were on the same side, they were unstoppable.

The person – a guy, by the timber of the voice – didn’t stop calling for them, so they could find him at the right and front end of the room. In the direct path of the fire coming forward.

“Thank God you’re here, please help. She’s trapped” TK had to make his way around a lot of furnishing and garbage he didn’t care about, but would be just fine combustible for the flames.

When he got close enough to see the guy’s face, TK held in a gasp. Burns were a double standard. They stopped bleeding and, if the burn was severe enough, at certain point one’s pain receptors got burnt on the process, and the person couldn’t feel it anymore. Being a firefighter, TK worked with several burn victims across his career. It was sad, but they actually taught you how to approach it both logically and humanly in the Academy. TK would bet this guy was working on adrenaline and the relief not being able to feel pain. TK concealed his emotions so they wouldn’t show on his face, because he could bet this person couldn’t even realize his state in the moment. Shock and survival instinct could perform wonders. But, right now, this guy was risking his very thin and very miraculous survival so far by standing next to another trapped victim.

The guy had the entire left side of his body severely burned. His right side was slightly better, but in both arms TK could see the muscle amongst the black marks of what once must’ve been a suit. His clothes were practically gone, instead becoming a second layer that melted with skin and was glued to his body. His left ear was gone, as was his left cheek. TK could see his back teeth without much effort, and when the guy turned around to gesture to the other victim on the ground, TK could see the bone of his skull in the back of his head, as well as the bone of his left elbow. And this was only what TK could see. This person had third-degree burns wide across his body, the fact that he was still standing was – much less working – for the lack of better wording, truly a miracle. TK feared this guy, once the adrenaline wave passed, wouldn’t resist the shock that came after. He had seen it before. He shook his head. Nothing from that sentence was under his control. TK had to focus on doing what he could, let go of that which wasn’t under his control.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,  
courage to change the things I can,  
and wisdom to know the difference” He repeated to himself, in his mind, the serenity prayer, mantra of the AA and the NA, which TK was now a part of.

“She’s trapped, I can’t get her out!” The man said.

They were close to another corner of the room, where another column was. The female victim was trapped under pieces of the ventilation ducts, some pipes which TK could bet were the non-working sprinkler system and part of the ceiling. As they crouched to analyze the situation, TK realized for the first time the column was wider that it was supposed to be in a building with this many floors. Tall buildings were usually made of lighter materials, weight wise. He hadn’t got the time to think about it, though, because the trapped victim called for them:

“Help” She said, weakly. The smoke, the effort and the heat did their number on her. Her breath was shallow and her voice was weak. Her eyes were small like she was about to lose consciousness.

TK and Judd looked at each other again. They needed to get her out of there, fast.

“I tried, but I couldn’t get her out” The man cried behind them and made TK remember he was still there.

“Ok, sir, calm down. We’re going to help her, but first we have to take you out of harm’s way”

“But she-” TK didn’t let the man finish.

“I know, but she’s with professionals now” TK didn’t actually touch the guy, but was guiding him away with his body. When he turned to look in the direction of the flames, however, he realized the open window they came through was gone and the fire formed a perfect line from one side of the room to the other. It was also way closer to them then he realized before.

TK took off the upper part of his suit.

“Listen, you’re gonna put this on and you’re going to run through that fire. When you’re in the other side, I need you to throw it back to me. Got it?” TK thinks he saw the guy nod, but he wasn’t sure. He placed his jacket over the guy’s shoulders. “Go! SUSAN, WE’RE SENDING ONE YOUR WAY!”

“OKAY!” The woman screamed back. TK also wanted to check on her.

Just like he planned, the guy ran straight through the fire. Two seconds later, his jacket was thrown back in a ball of fire. He threw it on the ground and stepped on it a little to put it out, before wearing it again and turning back to Judd.

“This is gonna need both of us to get out of her”

“Agreed. I got the other side” TK stepped over the woman and started cleaning the smaller rubble out of the way. Judd did the same on his side.

“Okay, let’s try lifting this now”

Each of them got on one side of the fallen duct. It wasn’t supposed to be so heavy, but both men really broke a sweat to raise it off of the victim. They had to maneuver it away as well, because the woman didn’t move. Once they got rid of it, both men crouched by her again. TK got to examining her head and upper torso and Judd stayed with the legs.

“TK!” Judd called, alarmed. “Both her legs are a no-go” He said in a volume he deemed appropriate so she wouldn’t hear. TK wouldn’t go as far as getting concerned about that, the woman looked like she was a couple seconds from passing out. If she had any internal injury, removing the weight on top of her would contribute for it to start leaking and accelerate the process. Also, the pain of both legs being broken would be a factor.

Running down his fingers gently through her spine without moving her, TK felt something weird. A bone out of place and out of angle. Shit. When in full turn-out fire gear, they didn’t have space to carry hammocks and neck collars.

“She needs to be immobilized” TK informed, his voice tense.

“Fuck” Was all that Judd offered him in response.

“Come on, you’ve got some rope with you, don’t you?” TK had medical supplies, Judd had the tools. “Let’s find a door, something flat to lay her on”

They turned around to start scavenging the room.

“Fuck, TK, the fire is way too close!” Judd alerted. And it was, indeed. TK wondered what kind of flammable material was so goddamn strong in this fucking building that allowed this to go on through so many floors. Of course, there was wood, but it couldn’t be the only agent. This was an absolute nightmare. “Found something!”

TK ran to his side and they cleared the piece of wood. It was a piece of the ceiling, more or less in an acceptable size to place the victim. They brought it over. Carefully picked up the woman and placed her over it. TK could feel the heat getting almost unbearable, he was sweating rivers. The fire was close, they were out of time. Judd cut the rope in several pieces to strap the woman to the wood tightly. They did the best they could in the circumstances.

“TK, I’ve been thinking…” Judd started, as they were finishing tying her legs. “You’re the best medic among us, and we should have our hands free”

“What do you mean, cowboy?” TK asked as he checked their knots.

“We should tie her to my back”

TK opened his mouth to argue, but the look in Judd’s eyes, the crippling of the fire shadows dancing on his face and the air of desperation between them stopped TK from doing it. He nodded and they got to work in finding a position to do so. Judd made quick work of cutting the rope in the sizes TK asked for and TK ran around tying the woman and the piece of wood to Judd’s body the faster and more securely he could. When he satisfied himself with his work, the fire was less than 8 feet from their faces.

TK rested his hand on the column behind him for a second to find his footing again. He felt it burning hot. The flames hadn’t got to it yet, unless…

“Let’s go”

“No, Judd, wait!” TK pleaded. “I need your axe”

“What are you doing, TK?” With another person tied to him, Judd couldn’t really reach for it, so TK found a way along his waist and freed the tool.

Then, he hammered it down on the column the faster he could. They had no time, but he had to confirm his suspicions, for everybody’s safety.

“TK, for Christ’s sake, what are-” Judd couldn’t finish his sentence. TK found a way to open a hole in the column, and fire breathed out of it.

It was the model of a hollow column, used frequently to also pass cables and pipes along the building in a cleaner aesthetic way. It was not supposed to have any flammable materials in its composition, but the evidence disagreed with them. They were even more fucked than they thought.

As if destiny was mocking them, in the exact moment TK and Judd were facing one another, disbelief in their faces, the entire building trembled slightly; but the sound it produced was guttural.

“Fuck” Judd hissed at the same time TK urged them “Go, go!”

Their radios started going off like crazy with Owen demanding to know what the hell was going on.

“Here, take this” TK took off his jacket again and threw it over the woman’s body the best he could. Judd would have to run through the flames with her.

“What?” Judd couldn’t really turn his body, his movements restricted, to see what TK was talking about.

“Go! You ask for Susan to throw it back to me on the other side. GO” TK urged him and almost pushed him through the flame.

TK had the time to dislodge his radio.

“Captain, this is firefighter Strand, do you copy?”

He waited through three beats of his heart.

“Strand, 10-4”

“The fire traveled down the hollow columns. I repeat, the fire traveled down the hollow columns in the building, the structure is compromised”

He could only imagine what his dad must’ve felt when he heard these words, being that far from him, not knowing what was going on, if they were ok. He could guess they hadn’t had any contact with him in a good 30 minutes. If he knew his dad, he’d be flipping out of his mind.

“FALL BACK, ALL UNITS FALL BACK IMMEDIATELY” Owen’s screaming rough voice came through the radio once again.

With the building compromised, their time was up. They had to get out now. And they had three injured people and 20 stories to go down.

He waited in the edge of the fire for them to throw back his coat. He supposed they were taking a little because they were putting out it’s fire. What neither TK or Judd were able to piece together, and in the heat of the moment no one could blame them, was the evidence of Susan’s clothes and the pattern of collapsing of the ceiling.

TK heard a weird sound from above, almost like plastic melting in a microwave…

When he looked up, it was too late. The upper ending of the ceiling, where the finishing works connected to the brick of the building was covered with some kind of plastic wallpaper of sorts that not only was flammable, but melted in the process. The flames being so close to TK made the material catch fire and rain right over him.

The scream of pain that left his lungs raised every single hair in Judd’s body.

“TK!” Judd screamed in desperation. “Quick, Susan, help me get this” Since his movements were limited, he needed help to get to the small fire extinguisher all of them had on their turn-out fire gear. The woman worked smartly with the firefighter and, although the extinguisher didn’t have much volume, Judd was able to make a hole in the flame line and just as he was about to step through again to go get TK, his partner stumbled forward, knees failing him.

He immediately directed the extinguisher flux at TK. When he was satisfied his brother was no longer catching fire, he grabbed TK by the shoulder and dragged him to a place farther from the flames.

“TK, are you okay?”

“Argh” The younger firefighter replied with a moan of pure pain. He took Judd’s hand and stood up. His right arm and his back were entirely burnt, as some parts of his right torso and leg. “The ceiling, the fucking ceiling…” He started, breathless because of the pain.

“It was raining down fire” Susan complemented, understanding.

“What?” Judd looked at her like she had grown another head.

“Plastic” TK informed, still trying to stand still. Then Judd got it. There was plastic on the ceiling. The fire consumed the carpet from the floor, then it got to the wooden walls. When it reached height, it consumed the plastic from the ceiling. It was a triple fire-hazard that kept on feeding itself, that was the reason the fire was taking so long to die out. Too much stuff to burn. And God only knew what the hell it was burning inside the columns.

“We got to get out, now. Can you walk?”

“Yeah, yeah”

Susan threw TK’s coat over his shoulder and he cried in pain.

“Sorry, I thought-”

“No, you did good” TK reassured her.

As they turned to leave, the other burned guy collapsed.

“No, no, no” Judd couldn’t believe his luck. Was this it for him? Was this the way he’d leave Grace? His mind shifted to manic places.

TK limped in his direction and crouched to take his pulse.

“He’s alive” He breathed out, his energies running out fast. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“I can-” Judd started, but was interrupted by TK moving around the victim’s body.

He pulled the guy’s right arm up, his least burned side – they almost matched, TK thought sadly – and with huge effort to ignore his pain, he pulled the guy’s body up and over his left shoulder. When he turned back to Judd, his face was marked by tear tracks of pain.

“TK, I-”

Tyler ignored Judd, passed by him and went forward trying to remember where they came from to retake the same path. He knew what Judd was about to say, that he could take them both down. The idiot. He’d probably collapse halfway through too. Susan lost no time in keeping in TK’s heels and Judd had no choice but to follow them. They broke out in a small running pace, Susan loosing her shoes along the way.

When they finally got to the stairs, the smoke had cleared out a little; but TK felt no relief. It felt like his skin was gone and everything was poking and stabbing his muscles. Every three steps he would bite his lip to hold in a sob.

Twenty stories down to go.

  
  


—§—

  
  


If Owen hadn’t been drained of every possible human emotion by now, he’d be freaking out. But the panic attack and the adrenaline drop got him beat rather easily. He could feel the Earth moving around him, but all he had left in him to do was to clutch his radio and wait for updates from his people inside and from dispatch.

The four helicopters, including the Fire Department one had performed their job, but there were still too many people trapped in the breastworks. Some of them couldn’t even be totally evacuated, considering the news helicopters could, at best, take four more people at a time each. The time they’d have to take to find a spot to land safely – none of the surrounding buildings had a heliport –, possibly fuel up again and come back up in the air; the place where they’d land would have to have a structure to welcome the victim, with ambulances and paramedics and police support… If Owen had time it would be ok, they could make as many trips as necessary. But people were afraid, tired, at risk and inclined to fall. And then there was that terrible, horrific sound. The structure had been affected. TK patching though about the fire reaching the hollow columns. This building was unstable, it could collapse at any moment.

He didn’t know who to pray to anymore. He didn’t used to, these days. He had been a religious man once. He taught his son the importance of community and faith. Now, TK would go to the synagogue on his own. Well, Owen thought he’d go; he wasn’t actually sure if his son was connected to their religion. Shit, he was a terrible father, wasn’t he?

He just sat there, in the curb, and begged to whoever was listening to bring them all back out alive. But when the alarm came from his son, he obliged his legs to raise him up once again; shouting commands at dispatch like crazy. All units of medical and fire in the city had been rerouted to him. All helicopters, private and public, in the area they were capable of taking a hold of were on their way. The people of Austin did come through for him.

“Grace” He called on his radio.

“I’m here, Captain”

“How far out are those helicopters?”

“Several are coming from private spots all over the county, Captain, there’s support coming from as far as Dallas and San Antonio”

“The closer ones you have, rush them. The ones farther away, send them back”

“I’m sorry, Captain, I’m not sure I heard-”

“Yes, you heard me right, Grace. Everyone inside a ten mile radius is green-lit, all the others won’t make it in time”

“Captain Strand -”

“The structure is compromised, Grace. They are out of time. It could collapse anytime now”

“I-” Grace made a strangled sound in her throat. It was exactly like Owen felt. No words, no moves, nothing they could do except feel fear. Hope was running out between their fingers like sand.

“Grace…”

“I’m on it, Captain” She replied and cut him off. If she was pissed at him, it was a good thing. In this situation, was one of the better options for her to waste her energy on.

Now plans have changed. Drastically. He hurried to the Austin PD tent. As expected, Carlos looked like he was in charge. He had a map in front of him and, with other officers, they were tracing paths to optimize traffic and ease up the work of firefighters and paramedics on getting there. Owen could see at the end of the street his idea worked. Vehicles parked over the sidewalks and the middle of the street was free. The more they could free space for traffic, the easier it would be for them to free more space. The faster units would be able to move around.

“Carlos!” Owen called for him, once his almost son-in-law didn’t realize he was there.

“Yes, sir” Carlos looked up and immediately stood straight, like he was about to salute Owen. For Christ’s sake, this kid.

“I need you to hold back all units”

“What?” Carlos looked at him like he was going insane. After all the hard work he put on clearing the streets, Owen didn’t want his support anymore? “But they’re 3 minutes out”

“Okay, then they park at least 200 feet from here. I need you to pick up everything you have here and clear out. Evacuate every person on site, civilian or not”

“But, Owen-”

“The building is about to fall, Carlos”

As Owen spoke these words and they locked eyes, they could both feel they were thinking of the same person. They stared at each other with all their emotions on display, a complete mess, but in a way you only dare to show your mess to people you trust. To family. They were both terrified. But they were the kind of men who took charge and in the face of catastrophe, raised up. Carlos blinked and became Officer Reyes again.

“Get him out, I got the rest” He pleaded. Then, he proceeded to grab a megaphone in a table nearby and clicked his radio, spitting furious orders into it.

His next stop was Michelle. His fellow Captain seemed as shook to the core as him. Michelle was one of the strongest people he knew. The world was really ending on them, wasn’t it?

“Captain” Michelle found energy to tease him with her usual tone. It almost sent Owen on tears again.

“Captain” He replied, trying his best to match her teasing tone and failing. “I need a favor. Well, not really a favor. But you don’t like being ordered around”

She was patching a burn victim and her hands didn’t stop working for a single second. The person looked like a mummy. Owen swallow dry on this throat.

“Then you already understand how things work in Texas, Captain”

“Michelle, I need you to evacuate. Now” He cut the pleasantries.

“Excuse me, but-”

“The building is coming down, Michelle” This got even the patient’s attention, whom turned their head to Owen quickly. Michelle’s eyes widened at the sentence.

“But…”

“Take everyone with a pulse inside your ambulance and go. But leave Tim, I need him”

“What? No-”

“I got two firetrucks to evacuate on my own. Can’t do it alone” He pleaded with his eyes. He wouldn’t actually beg her, but he hoped her pride wouldn’t get in their way once again.

“Fine, but you give him back to me safe and sound, right?” And then Owen understood why she was reluctant about it.

“I’ll do my best. Now go”

The woman rose to her feet, talking with her patient and helping them get up with her. There would be a lot of people to get out of the street alone. She and Carlos would have to figure out a way to do that fast, but Owen couldn’t focus on other people’s jobs. He had to do his to ensure the maximum amount of people survived. Then he’d pass them on to the next one in line. They didn’t mention the bodies. They didn’t have the time to evacuate them as well. If the building fell over them, it’d be double work to recover their bodies, but they had to focus on those that could be saved.

He walked over straight to Tim, but his hand on his radio.

“Does anyone has no survivors with them? Is any team clear?”

One by one, and sometimes one over the other, answers poured through. Everyone had their hands busy. No one could be evacuated through the ladders on the trucks. They’d have to come down the building’s stairs, the longer way. Judd replied this time. Owen got a bad feeling about this act, but paid it no mind.

Owen knew Tim drove the ambulance more often than not. He was a good driver too. He’d have to turn it out. He grabbed the paramedic by the wrist and told him what to do. Owen carefully maneuvered the ladders back down and they got to work. At this point, scene was almost clear already. Carlos and Michelle had come through.

  
  


—§—

  
  


Things started to get critical when TK was on the 13 th  floor. The teams from the lower floors were almost at the street level, some had even met at the stairs. TK supposed he and Judd took too much time after his dad’s orders to evacuate, because they hadn’t found anyone yet. He didn’t have his radio on anymore, it got damaged when he got injured. Not halfway through down yet and his vision was going dark at the corners. TK hoped he could make it, but, most of all, he hoped that if he collapsed; Judd didn’t stay with him. Grace would probably find a way to find him in the afterlife and punish him for putting Judd in harm’s way. He wasn’t scared of throwing punches with a red neck cowboy who was a feet taller than him, but when it came to that 5 foot lady, TK knew better.

He could hear voices in the background, coming from Judd’s radio. Several reports and updates about victims and where the teams were. Every now and then Judd said something into it, trying not to slow down in the process. At some point, Judd took the lead. TK was the last in their line, but he was doing his best not to hold them back.

At the 13 th  floor, the building roared again, harder this time, louder. The ground trembled violently and TK was caught by surprise mid-step. He lost his support and went face first into the wall ahead. Luckily, both Judd and Susan had turned the corner already and he didn’t string anyone else – except the victim he was already carrying – along.

He heard his nose crack in the instant. He could swear the pain made him black out for a second, but his body was already coming back up on it’s own; adrenaline high.

“I’m okay, I’m okay!” He assured as Judd started approaching him to do something, but TK was hurrying to pick the victim back up.

Judd’s radio started going off like crazy, but in the pain haze TK couldn’t focus on it.

“You’re bleeding!”

“Yeah, yeah. And we are out of time. Don’t stop, Judd” With effort, he put the guy on his shoulder again. He hauled in pain, but bit the inside of his cheek not to let the sound completely escape his mouth. Oh, there was definitely something else besides his nose which was broken.

He pushed through Judd again.

“Listen to me, Judd. Whatever it happens to me, you’re not stopping, you’re not staying behind. Got it? You keep going on. You get out. You save yourself”

“TK, I-”

“Promise me, Judd”

“You know I can’t promise you that”

“Do I need to involve Grace in this?” TK laughed and his mouth got filled with blood. He didn’t know how dry his throat was, but in the midst of it all, he felt even glad for the blood. It made him feel less thirsty.

“Don’t joke about this”

“I’m not” He stated as they crossed the 12th floor plate.

The unstopping screaming from the radio made them diverge their attention.

“I CAN’T, I CAN’T! I NEED TO GET TO HIM”

“THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO, MARJAN. GET OUT OF THERE NOW”

“BUT HE-”

“HE’S GONE, MARJAN, AND YOU’LL BE TOO IF YOU DON’T GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW” Marjan and Owen were having a stand-off, like they were bound to have at certain point. The timing was the worst possible, however.

“You were the first relieved from duty, Marjan, what were you two still doing up there?”

“We heard someone crying and -”

“Where are you?”

“Eighth”

“Fuck” Owen was not a man to curse, ever. Judd was on edge. TK looked about to travel to the great beyond. Fuck was the only word possible. “Is there anyone above the eighth floor?”

The radio went silent. No responses. All of the other teams were lower. Owen wouldn’t make them climb again to get Marjan and risk more lives. However, making a detour could cost all of theirs. Judd thought for a good half-second before replying:

“Aye, Captain. Ryder and Strand, 12th floor coming down hot”

“Can you take Marjan out of there? She seems to be in shock” Owen replied. TK wasn’t able to hear all the conversation in the middle of his stupor, but Judd did. Firefighter down. The last shaking of the building dropped a wall over Williams. Marjan couldn’t find him, he wasn’t responding. Judd knew what that meant, hell, they all did; but he also understood Marjan’s reaction. Not being able to accept it, not being able to stop hoping. If Luke was alive, they wouldn’t have the time or the resources to rescue him.

“I can try, but I won’t make any promises” Judd said into his radio. Then, almost whispering so TK wouldn’t hear, he added: “Cap, TK is in pretty bad shape. He may not make it”

Judd swallowed the little amount of saliva he had like pure cyanide. Making it known out loud made a freezing feeling travel down his spine. If he reacted like this, he could only imagine what Owen must’ve been feeling at the moment.

Owen didn’t reply. It was Grace who came through. She had also listened.

“Judd?”

“Hi, love. I’m making my way back to you. I promise. Whatever happens, I’ll always be on my way back to you” He couldn’t hold himself from sobbing, surprised when his cheeks got wet.

He heard sniffing before the radio went static again.

Eleventh floor.

A different voice came through the radio.

“Firefighter Ryder, this is Lieutenant Grayson from the 102. You are to extract firefighter Marwani and come down as fast as you can. Use physical force if needed” What the hell? Where was Owen? Judd supposed the news he gave were bad, but… A thousand scenarios started running through his mind.

TK started limping more and more with each step. Then, on the tenth floor, he started losing fine motor skill. He was walking like he was drunk. Judd kept asking him each three steps to release the victim to him. TK wouldn’t listen. Judd had never in his life hated TK more than now.

Susan kept rushing them with her pace, which, is understandable for someone who’s running for their life. Whenever either him or TK would slow down a little bit, she’d press them forward. It was actually good. It made Judd feel like at least one of them was grounded enough to do this.

Ninth floor.

Eighth.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU, MARJAN?” Judd stepped into the floor screaming.

“TK, put him down here, by the stairs. Susan, I’d ask you to look after them while I go look for her, but I can’t ask this of you. If you want, go down. Save yourself” Judd went into commando with the very last of his strengths.

“Nah, you guys saved me. I owe you one. I’ll stay” She stared Judd down. There was no point in fighting over this.

TK, moaning, as carefully as he could, placed the guy with his back to the stairs wall, but the guy’s head hit the concrete with rather too much force anyway.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“If you need to drag out Marjan, you’re gonna need help. You might be able to hold your own against me, cowboy, but she’s another league” TK spat blood with every word he enunciated. Fuck.

They went in, screaming out of their lungs for their friend and into their radio too.

Turns out, she wasn’t far from the stairs. Down the main hall, to the right. All of the walls and ceiling were collapsed in the area. Marjan was digging a pile of rubble with her own hands.

“Marjan, let’s go” Judd tried to be as soft as he could.

“No! He’s there and I-”

Ok, he tried.

“We haven’t got the time for this” He grabbed her by her shoulders pulled her away. Of course, she started screaming, punching, kicking and scratching Judd wherever she could get a hold of him.

However, when TK went for her legs and she zeroed on him, she stopped.

“Allahu Akbar, what happened to you?”

“What? Not digging my new looks? A lady friend I made recently told me chicks love guys with scars…” TK winked at her.

“TK…” She tried to reach his face.

“Yeah, yeah, I know” He nodded.

She took a breath, blinked, and then:

“Okay, guys. I’m okay. You can put me down now”

They did so. She didn’t run away. Or started hitting them again.

“It’s not your fault, Marjan, but we need to get out of here. Come on” Judd rushed her.

She followed.

When they got back to the stairs, Susan was where they left her. The building trembled again, not as strongly now, but it sent them all on a desperation spiral. TK went immediately to pull the victim over his shoulder again. Marjan tried to argue but he passed through her exactly like he did with Judd. Marjan and Judd exchanged looks, but followed suit.

  
  


—§—

When he stepped out into the smoke-heavy and hot afternoon air, TK would like to say he had felt more relieved. But he didn’t. He couldn’t think anymore. He was going forward only by the strength of Judd, Marjan and Susan pushing him forward. His whole body was numb and honestly he was considering sitting down for a moment and resting for a bit. Just a little bit.

The building screamed twice while they were getting down. They could hear the sound of concrete breaking apart, things falling with great impact. The building was already falling apart. All of them were terrified, desperate; but not TK. After the 5 th  floor, his expression was almost of piece. Of acceptance.

They had cleared the street in front of the building. Great, more running to do.

As they were crossing down the steps of the lobby, the first big chunk of the building hit the street to their left.

TK limped the fast he could, but he still was the last of them. He could feel debris hitting him and the body of the guy he was carrying over his shoulder. It would be so easy to just sit down to rest for an instant…

TK felt his face graze against something rough. He didn’t remember falling, or feeling it; but the thing in front of his face was definitely asphalt. He thought he could feel the left side of his face hurt, but it was only a ghost sensation, like it was being eclipsed by something greater. He swallowed his blood on the surprise and it went down the wrong way. He coughed violently.

“TK, come on, we’re almost there!” Marjan was there, she was talking to him, but TK wasn’t sure if he could answer. She raised him to his knees and placed his left arm over her shoulders. TK felt someone doing the same thing with his right arm. When he looked at it, it was Susan.

Together, they brought him up to his feet and started carrying him. More debris were falling down on them. All around them. The building was roaring. There was screaming. Flickering lights hurting his eyes. Sirens. TK couldn’t quite place where he was, what he was doing or where he was going. All he knew was that he needed to get out of there. He tried to get his legs to cooperate and the pain almost brought him down again.

On the bright side, his pain rush got him more alert and he was able to focus on his victim, fallen to the ground in a weird angle ahead of them.

“I have to-” He tried to free his arm from Marjan’s hold, in the direction of his victim.

“No, no. TK, he’s dead! Don’t stop, he’s dead” Marjan kept pulling on him and for a moment he fought her grasp.

Susan held his face with her hands and looked straight into his eyes.

“He’s gone, kid. Has been for a long time. You don’t have to be. Let’s go” There was something in the calm way she talked to him, like in that moment she knew everything and anything she said would be right no matter what. A feeling of safety came over him, he had to trust this person, had to do whatever she said.

Suddenly, he was seven again. His parents had fought again. Dad wasn’t home. Mom would hold his face between her palms, look deep into his eyes and say everything was okay and everything was going to be okay. He believed her. He wanted to, so he did. It was that simple. It didn’t matter if it was true or not. What matters is that he trusted her, he believed her.

TK placed his arms around the women again. He tried harder. His legs wouldn’t always hit the floor in the same pace as them, but it alleviated the burden enough.

A rock hit his head. There was more blood running down. He wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t.

Judd was ahead of them, by the firetruck. There were other firefighters, Tim, Gillian, all around him trying to untie him. Just a few more steps…

Marjan stepped on the sidewalk and used all of her force to pull all of them behind an ambulance with her. They all fell to the ground at the exact moment where the last of the building’s structure gave out and everything became a cloud of dust.

TK, however, didn’t pass out like he supposed he would when they stopped. Instead, he forced his arms up and with a lot of trouble, was able to raise his torso from the ground.

“Dad” He whispered. In his mind, he was screaming, but the fatigue, the injuries, the dust, the smoke, his dry throat… Nothing was on his side. “DAD” He kept going.

Eventually he was able to sort of raise himself up. It wasn’t stable, his legs would fail him at any moment and he knew, but he had to keep going. He had to.

Everything was gray, the heavy dust engulfed the entire quarter making it impossible to see a palm in front of his face. He couldn’t find Marjan anymore. Or Judd. He didn’t know which direction he was going. But he kept putting one foot in front of the other.

“DAD”

“TK!” He heard in the back of his mind. He couldn’t tell if it was real or not. Nothing felt real. He had nightmares just like this. Was he dreaming? What would it take for him to wake up?

“TK!” The screaming continued. It was getting closer.

“DAD?”

This went on for a few more rounds, as the person zeroed in on TK by the sound of his voice. TK, on the other hand, couldn’t tell if they were closer or farther away from him. He felt like he was going on the wrong direction at times. At others, he felt like the person looking for him was just by his side.

Finally, someone slipped their arms around him and TK could let himself go, his legs not needing to hold him up anymore.

“Ty, oh God, I thought I lost you” Carlos’ voice came shaky: he was, or had been, crying.

“Carlos?”

“Yeah, Tiger. I’m here”

“It’s really you?”

“Yeah, it is” Carlos held TK closer, just to feel him wince in pain. “I’m sorry, we have to get you patched up. Let’s go”

“My dad…” TK looked at his boyfriend with glossy eyes. They were almost as gray as the dust around them, the green almost without color.

“Oh, he’s with Michelle, mi amor. I’ll take you to them”

Carlos picked TK up properly. His system started to slow down and bit by bit the Earth-shattering pain was coming back from all over his body. No such luck on passing out from the shock still. TK knew he had to stay awake, had to fight to do so with everything he had. But he was so damn tired of being in pain.

TK had no idea how Carlos was able to tell in which direction they were going, because he couldn’t see anything. He let his head fall and fit on the crook of Carlos’ neck. His boyfriend smelled like sweat, cement and faintly of his characteristic wooden cologne.

“Got him, sir” Carlos said again and TK realized they reached an ambulance. His father was seated by the door, oxygen mask in place, as Michelle worked on a patient on the bed inside.

“Dad!” TK squirmed in Carlos’ arms to get to his father. Oh Lord, his dad was ok. He threw himself in his dad’s lap, hugging him with everything he had left. They were both crying, Carlos was crying, even Michelle was tearing up. “Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, hagomel lahayavim tovot, sheg'molani kol tov” TK recited, his forehead against his father’s. He hadn’t talked to God in so long, but right now it was the only thing he cared about. Thanking him for bringing his father back to him.

“Amen, Amen” Owen echoed in his ear as they embraced. He pulled his mask off and called for his son-in-law: “Thank you. Come here”

Officer Reyes blushed, but dove into Owen’s arms.

Press found a way to snuggle itself amongst the first responder vehicles arriving at the scene. What neither of the three of them realized was the reporter clicking his camera at their little reunion. But, whatever, there was nothing Owen could give a fuck about now. His son was safe. Carlos brought him back. There was no way he could love these two more.

After she deemed their moment had happened for long enough, Michelle intervened.

“Excuse me, boys. But we need to take a look at TK. And you need to put your mask back on, Captain”

As soon as Owen dislodged himself from his sons, Michelle and Nancy got to work on TK. They pulled him inside the ambulance and started assessing. Helicopters were coming close again, sirens were on and Carlos could start to see the flickering lights. His radio was going off again and there were new firetrucks and ambulances pulling over all around them, guided by Carlos’ officers. He was covered in dirt and TK’s blood, but he didn’t even care. Carlos and Owen held stared at each other. It was finally over.

  
  


—§—

Owen knows TK promised him he wouldn’t be checking in into any hospital anytime soon after getting shot, but he didn’t actually hold it against his son. He was glad TK was ok – more or less, anyway. He needed stitches in several places in his head, his nose and clavicle were broken and three of his ribs had been cracked. He got patched up by ortho and sent into the burnt victims wing, which was full after the tragedy. The healing process was definitely more painful than the heat of the action, and TK being the moody pouty TK would complain about being done with hospitals for the year and wanting to go home. He still couldn’t change clothes and bathe on his own though, so those were good arguments for Owen to keep him pinned in place. Besides, this time he was awake and he and Carlos were tighter than ever. Owen had someone to share the responsibility with.

Which was great, because 36 hours after the falling of the building, Owen got a call from Fire Chief Radford threatening to sue him and to send him to jail for insubordination and obstruction. Owen was not stupid. If there was something with which they could charge him he’d be fired and behind bars by now. And with big media covering all that happened on Austin that day – the picture of Owen, Carlos and TK embracing made front-page news in several periodics across the country –, it didn’t take long for someone to connect the dots about the circumstances of the catastrophe and why the building didn’t follow any fire-hazard guidelines to begin with. A large investigation was set up and the FBI wouldn’t take long to trace the system of corruption both the Mayor and the Fire Chief were part of: selling permits from the fire department to whoever paid for it.

As expected, Owen was back again at work in less than 48 hours. The fire-station didn’t open it’s doors to public assistance, but he had to organize the papers for Luke Williams’ funeral. And TK’s medical leave.

The funeral was as heartbreaking as expected. A body was recovered with matching DNA to Luke’s mother, but the casket had to be closed for the reception and all following services. Marjan stood like a hawk by the side of Luke’s family. It was clear she felt guilty. Owen sent her to obligatory therapy sessions, only being able to come back with an all clear from the doctor.

TK got moody about the funeral, wanted to go at any cost; Carlos was the only one able to calm him down. When he was left alone with Owen, it was usually a nightmare. He wouldn’t obey orders and stay still. Gwenyth was flying in from London this time. She sounded absolutely mad at Owen, which he didn’t mind at all. He knew whenever and whatever TK needed from her, she’d be there and that was the only thing Owen expected from his ex-wife.

When Gwenyth touched down, she decided to stay at Carlos’, believe it or not. His charm worked on all three of them.

At certain point, Owen could feel his son getting depressed, because the process of recovery for burn victims is long and painful. Being locked in a hospital for a long time again was breaking him. And no matter what anyone did, it didn’t seem to help much. Owen then called Kwasa, TK’s therapist, and set a higher amount for her to go visit his son in the hospital; take his sessions there. Gwenyth didn’t flinch about opening her purse as well. Owen was financially comfortable; but his ex-wife was rich, and she liked to flaunt it around. Things started looking up when the survivor from the tragedy, Susan, came by to visit. They cried, TK introduced her to the entire family, they exchanged contacts and promised to see each other soon. After that, she’d come by twice a week bringing TK some kind of chocolaty bribe no nurse would allow him to have – or Carlos. Or Gwenyth. Owen didn’t like keeping contact with people he saved, but he understood he needed to make an exception here.

After three weeks in the hospital, TK finally got released. Gwenyth and Carlos moved in temporarily to help with him. TK and Carlos had their first huge fight that night. TK sent Carlos away. The cop went with tears rolling down his face. Both parents wanted to intervene, but they didn’t. Owen got the job of assessing TK and Gwenyth took Carlos duty. They managed to “control the bleeding” for the time being, but only TK could fix this.

Fast forward to a few weeks later, several therapy sessions for everyone, and a teary TK admitting to Carlos that because of his burning scars he didn’t feel handsome enough, worthy enough. He was disgusted to look at himself and wanted to spare Carlos of having to do it. So he pushed his boyfriend away in hopes they’d break up and Carlos would find someone better suited to him. Carlos cried. TK cried a lot more. That was the first night they loved each other after the accident.

New City Administration stepped in with public morale as low as it could be. As a palliative measure, they tried to focus public attention on propaganda about “The Heroes of Austin”. Every person on ground that day got called in for a photo-shoot. TK didn’t want to go. Carlos said he didn’t have to, knowing this was because of his insecurities about his body. But he’d like TK to be there holding his hand through his photo-shoot because he always got really nervous in front of cameras.

At the end, TK gave in and modeled for it in full turn-out gear. Billboards all across town were filled with their pictures. They got recognized on the streets. If this was something that happened before, TK’d thrive under the attention. Now, he wanted to run and hide. Carlos wasn’t given to public exposition either; so they started avoiding going out. In the other hand, Kwasa demanded that TK started bringing Carlos and sometimes Owen to his therapy sessions. So all of this could be eventually approached in the right way.

Administration changed, but the way politics works didn’t and the new Mayor didn’t like the idea of Owen’s civil disobedience line. Although he hadn’t been formally charged by anyone on account of his transgressions on the day of the tragedy, Owen was seen as dangerous by local political forces. Both because his speech and figure became so famous that his approval rates were so high that he could get elected to any State seat he wanted, maybe a federal one too; so suing him for any reason was not a good battle to pick. However, they balanced the situation by not officially recognizing anything he did. Carlos got a medal and a promotion. The same was offered to Michelle and Lieutenant Grayson from the 102. Owen’s name wasn’t mentioned in the ceremonies and the media questioned it, but it was a closed case because Owen himself didn’t give a damn about it. Or the politics. A fellow firefighter under his watch died. Everything else faded away in comparison. Besides, he was old, tired and sick. It was not the time for him to venture on the dangerous political waters.

With all the scars both physical and psychological they got from that day, life became harder than it had ever been. But, at the end of the day, TK had Carlos, his dad, his mom and his friends with him. All he could ask for was for a safe environment in which he could heal. And he had that right were he was.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! Phew, this one took a toll on me guys, I'm not gonna lie. Writing usually drains me emotionally and physically, but long and emotionally-heavy chapters are even worse. But I do it because I know you guys like what I do and because once I have an idea, I can't rest properly until I make it come alive.  
> The events depicted in this chapter were based on real events, from the disaster that happened in the Joelma, a building in downtown São Paulo, Brazil, in 1974. It was the biggest urban fire in the history of Brazil and second only to 9/11 in the amount of victims made in a building disaster in the world. It stays to this day as an emblematic event in the history of our our country for several reasons:  
> 1 - The building had been inaugurated two years before. It worked as the head office of a bank. None of the fire-hazard guidelines were up-to-date, because the company that built it paid heavy bribes to the Military Dictatorship Government of the time to raise it faster and with cheaper materials.  
> 2 - It left 187 people dead, more than 300 injured.  
> 3 - The fire started as a short circuit on an air conditioner on the 12th floor around 8:45 in the morning. By 9:10 the first firetruck arrived. At this moment, fire had already spread to the 20th floor and people were already jumping from the building.  
> 4 - Like in this story, there was no fire escape. People initially escaped using elevators - which is totally against safety rules, don't ever do this in a fire, people! - but soon enough the fire brought down the entire electrical system and they stopped working. People got trapped inside the elevators. 13 people were found melted together on one. They were never able to identify them. These 13 people are known as "As Treze Almas do Edifício Joelma" or the thirteen souls from the Joelma Building. They were buried side by side in a cemetery in the city, but workers from the site constantly inform hearing screaming and sounds of fire coming from the area of their graves. Therefore, it became a popular costume to bring a cup of water to their graves and throw it over them, to alliviate their suffering. It is said that for those who bring water to placate their suffering in eternal life, graces and miracles are layed upon thee.  
> 5 - Joelma became emblematic because the building survived and stands tall 'til this day, nowadays rebranded as Praça da Bandeira Building. Several paranormal activities have been reported in the building. Ghosts wandering the halls, screaming and voices frequently echo through the building, besides several other weird events, like cars parked on the parking lot that are constantly turning on and off their lights and alarms by themselves. It is strictly forbidden to take pictures or recordings of any kind inside it. It began on the wake of the event: the coroner informed that the pictures he took from the place after the fire was out, to help identify the bodies and on the investigations; in all of them bodies and objects simply disappeared. People that worked on the building afterwards informed seeing dark figures on the CCTV system. Some guards informed the ghosts contacted them in several ocasions, coming as far as speaking to them. When they tried to reply, the figure dissolved in front of their eyes. In the 2000's, a cinema student tried to record a documentary about the haunted building. He didn't get permission to do so, even though he stayed the entire day on the lobby trying to convince them to let him spend just one night on the building. He got severely denied and went back home. On the subway, he developed a full body rash with no explanion, that evolved into blisters like he had been burned. Two hours later, all symptoms disappeared. He never tried again.  
> 6 - On the same grounds, in 1948, a man named Paulo Ferreira de Camargo, a chemist, mudered his mother and two sisters in the house where they all lived. He hid their bodies on the well in their backyard. He killed himself on the bathroom when police showed up. The building company bought the grounds on the 60's.  
> Well, this was a long one. I didn't want to make it spooky or bring supernatural elements to the chapter, but I thought they were valid to be mentioned, as they're part of why this is so emblematic in Brazilian history.  
> However, the entire point is: FIRE RULES MATTER, THEY SAVE LIVES. Respect them, learn about them. Don't laugh at training exercises. Make sure the enviroments around you are safe and if they aren't, push for change to happen. Your life may be on the line.  
> Take care everyone, be safe, wear a mask, stan Lady Gaga, drink plenty of water, stop climate change, vote Trump out.  
> You can find me at @poshdoll4 on Twitter.  
> Thank you!


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